Rooster with bald spot on breast bone

[Jemma Rider]

Are you kidding?! That may be your problem. I'd like to see you step on the scale with him and see how close your estimate is.

With an average large rooster weighing in around 9 pounds that seems excessive.

I personally don't feed layer as it doesn't have enough protein for my dual purpose breeds. 16% is the bare minimum for light bodies layers like leghorn and my non laying birds don't need the calcium in addition to it POSSIBLY causing kidney issues for them if fed long term. Feathers are made of 90% protein and the amino acids it contains. Many people feed their birds lettuce and corn or scratch further diminishing the nutrient because they often don't realize lettuce is basically water and doesn't really count as getting green in the diet. Sorry if I already shared this info and repeating myself.

Again... what breed? If a meaty then those kind of issues can be very common as they were never intended to grow up and hang out on roost. Though some people do keep them as long as they can. I don't know what the oldest lived is yet.

Twenty is just a guess, he's absolutely huge i can't hold him for long my arms give out. He's a cross, he's part Jersey giant and part either black cooper marans, barred rock, buff orpington, or brahma. I prefer to believe he's a maran because i have a little bet with a friend over my chickens breeds. But he could be any of them. It's funny because he's twice the size of his brother, who's a brama. But he's been roosting since he was little i bought him and the others with their coop that they've lived in forever.
again twenty is just a rounded guess but he's definitely more then nine. I think it's feather weight as well he has quite the down coat. A friend of mine who is the daughter of the chickens previous owner couldn't even hold him i had to keep a hand on his chest so she wouldn't drop him. He was a good boy i swear he could be a therapy rooster if that's even a thing.
Would wrapping towels around the roosts help? He always sleeps on the bottom so i could wrap just that one.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Post a pic, lets see.

We can take a god stab at guessing the cross according to features.

Yes, the standards of perfection do include the feathers' weight.

Don't know if a towel will help or not. My guess would be not since it may be about friction. But you can always try. Since the feathers won't likely grow back in right away, I'm not sure how to tell if it's better or not.

Maybe some Vaseline on that chest area would lube it and allow it to move more freely instead of pulling?

Or if the baldness is going to be permanent then maybe some of the people who experience chest blisters could again tell their remedies and maybe you can use it before he blisters.

 

[Jemma Rider]

Post a pic, lets see.

We can take a god stab at guessing the cross according to features.

Yes, the standards of perfection do include the feathers' weight.

Don't know if a towel will help or not. My guess would be not since it may be about friction. But you can always try. Since the feathers won't likely grow back in right away, I'm not sure how to tell if it's better or not.

Maybe some Vaseline on that chest area would lube it and allow it to move more freely instead of pulling?

Or if the baldness is going to be permanent then maybe some of the people who experience chest blisters could again tell their remedies and maybe you can use it before he blisters.

I'll put some Vaseline on it tomorrow morning. I'm thinking of putting my hens old crop bra on him over the bald spot for a little while, would that protect it a bit better? Here is a picture of him, he looks just like a black cooper marans but he's at least half jersey giant.

his name is Rooster, because before he turned out to be a roo i thought it would be really ironic to have a hen named rooster. Here's a closer picture of his little face.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Even with side sprigs on his comb he is a handsome fella.
And though I won't breed a bird with side sprigs, they are kinda cool looking.

Out of the mixes you mention... Marans does look like part of the mix. Was the Jersey Giant the rooster or the hen. At first I was thinking hen but now I realize most people won't have that many roos around. So the unknown parent is the hen? This could even specifically eliminate some possibilities... for example the barred rock would have passed her barring on to her sons with a solid colored father.

He does look a lot like the BCM, but not just like.. his saddle feathers aren't the correct color. Not knocking your bird at all, just talking features that give clues to breed.

The crop bra might work really well. I would think the towel would still rub off the feathers.

 

[Jemma Rider]

Even with side sprigs on his comb he is a handsome fella.
And though I won't breed a bird with side sprigs, they are kinda cool looking.

Out of the mixes you mention... Marans does look like part of the mix. Was the Jersey Giant the rooster or the hen. At first I was thinking hen but now I realize most people won't have that many roos around. So the unknown parent is the hen? This could even specifically eliminate some possibilities... for example the barred rock would have passed her barring on to her sons with a solid colored father.

He does look a lot like the BCM, but not just like.. his saddle feathers aren't the correct color. Not knocking your bird at all, just talking features that give clues to breed.

The crop bra might work really well. I would think the towel would still rub off the feathers.

We honestly have no idea what the parents were, we got out chickens from a friend who is moving and the woman she got our roosters egg from had fifty to one hundred chickens total probably at about one rooster per ten hens those are the breeds she had and she believes that he came from a jersey giant roo, along with one of her hens but we really have no idea. All i know is he is a huge boy. I think I'm going to try the crop bra, i figure it can't hurt. Overall i don't care what breed he is, i just want to fix this bald spot, or protect it, before he develops breast blisters or something worse.

 

[junebuggena]

Mixed breed, likely with some Silkie ancestry to give the partial crest and feathered legs. Looks like he's an average sized rooster, in the 8 pound range. And it is perfectly normal for the keel to be bare. Feathers don't grow out of every single centimeter of skin.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I thought that looked like cresting.

 

[Jemma Rider]

Ok so I've been putting the crop bra over the bald spot for a few days, i take it off every morning and put it on about an hour before his bed time every night. At first i was worried it would mess with his crop since he wears it so low to cover the spot but I've felt his crop every morning and it seems fine.. But yesterday i noticed a red spot on the bald patch, not raised or warty, but I'm still incredibly worried that it could be a breast blister beginning to form. Here are a few pictures, what does it look like? It's not warmer then the surrounding skin and he's not bitting at it or showing any signs of discomfort, but these are chickens so i can't be sure if it's hurting him.

 

[junebuggena]

That's the keel, and it is supposed to be bare. There are no feather follicles along the keel for feathers to grow from. Relax. He's normal.

 

[Jemma Rider]

That's the keel, and it is supposed to be bare. There are no feather follicles along the keel for feathers to grow from. Relax. He's normal.

But all of the others have feathers there and i would have noticed the bald spot before he's my favorite.